Papers by Keyword: Initial Growth

Abstract: We investigated the relation between the nucleation of dislocations and the lattice misfits by nitrogen concentration difference between seed and grown crystal during the initial stage of growth. 4H-SiC single crystals were grown with various nitrogen gas flow rates introduced into the crystal growing chamber under the same temperature and pressure to minimize the effect of thermal stress on the nucleation of dislocations. The nitrogen atomic concentrations of grown crystals depended on the introduced nitrogen gas ratios and they highly increased at the very early stage of growth. The generation of new threading dislocations at the interface also was affected by the nitrogen atomic concentrations differences between seed and grown crystals. Very few generated threading dislocations were observed in low nitrogen atomic concentration samples, however nucleation of threading dislocations at the interface were found in high nitrogen atomic concentrations samples. At initial stages of PVT growth process, the generation of threading dislocations induced by lattice misfits originated from nitrogen concentration difference between seed and grown crystals were investigated and found the appropriate nitrogen gas flow rates and profile at the heating and depressurized stage.

Abstract: The generation and transformation of dislocations in 4H-SiC crystals grown by PVT were investigated. Experiments were carried out in two stages for more comprehensive observation on dislocation behaviors. For the first stage known as initial growth, we investigated mainly the seed and grown interface. The behavior and transition of the dislocations in grown crystal were observed along the length of the crystal at second stage. The formation of threading edge dislocations (TEDs) strongly depends on the surface morphologies related with internal temperature gradients during crystal growth. The basal plane dislocation (BPDs) and threading screw dislocation (TSDs) cause from the seed crystal and formed at the initial stage of growth were gradually decreased in number along the length of the crystal and under certain conditions such as distorted stresses, dislocations were converted into other types of dislocations.

Abstract: The initial GaN growth mode on stepped sapphires by plasma enhanced metal organic molecular beam epitaxy (PEMOMBE) has been analyzed using in-situ, real time synchrotron x-ray diffraction and x-ray absorption. The sapphire substrate annealed at high temperature had flat terraces and regular atomic steps. The crystal quality and the vicinal angle of sapphire substrate had an effect on the width of terraces and the step arrangement. The initial growth mode of the GaN film on the regular atomic step (AS) surface was the layer-by-layer mode and changed to the 3D growth mode within 2 bilayer thickness. In the meanwhile, the growth mode of the GaN film grown on the sapphire with random roughness (RR) surface made the flat surface in the early stage and changed the 3D growth mode. As increasing the film thickness, the nucleation layer grows strain-free hexagonal GaN on stepped sapphires